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Well, I pride myself on being a very good public speaker. I always have been. I have no worries speaking to any sized audience and being very effective in my delivery, but that still doesn't make it any easier trying to make myself understood at times. Actually, it's the one thing I really enjoy doing....teaching. However, you have to realise it's sometimes impossible to get something across if the audience just doesn't have the ability to see what you can. Even when you deliver it on a level they should be able to understand. It's just a fact of life that the majority of people don't have the ability (or the interest) to do science and can't understand it, or have a very skewed understanding of what it is.
If people have no hope of understanding a topic, then it's useless trying to convey to them later on what you were on about. I always stay open to questions and I'm very happy to help out anyone who's having trouble with things, but if they don't have a clue what you said first up, then despite trying to help out later on, it can be like pushing the proverbial ball of cow dung up a steep hill, trying to do so later on. They're in no better position to understand than what they were in before and if you want their support, then they must have at least a basic understanding of what you're on about and your own position.
The reason why pseudoscience gets the audience it does because it plays on the ignorance of others by spinning what appears to be a convincing argument. Being ignorant, the public knows no better and so falls for all the hype and the "glamour" it portrays to them. With a little knowledge and understanding, it's easy to see just how much real substance is there, but that's what the public lacks. It's much easier to believe in and follow the snake oil salesmen of the world than it is to follow the facts because the facts can be rather unpalatable, whereas the snake oil tastes exactly how you want it to and it's sold to make it taste that way.
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